One More Time
by Generated Anomaly
Summary: Dance with me, Ianto Jones? Just one more time."
1. Chapter 1

**Okay guys! I'm going to be gone for 3 days without internet, which will be a great time of coming up with tons of little plots for stories! But, in the meantime, I would love some reviews to read when I get back! So please read my stories and review! **

**((By the way, Deeta, if you're reading this… You made me smile real big! Jacks a prat and Ianto should stick with the cat? Nice use of rhyme xD You're amazing. Thank you for making my day!))**

**Inspired by the song One More Time by Daft Punk. **

**My first ever multi-chaptered Torchwood story! Hope you enjoy!**

Ianto Jones lived by himself in a small flat and his only company was his cat. He didn't have a girlfriend, he worked in a tourist office, his mother called him twice a week, and his favorite show was Gordan Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Ianto was a decent cook but he only liked the show because of the excessive amount of cussing that came with it. (He also liked that Chief Ramsey took his shirt off in nearly every episode, though he'd never admit that to anyone. Besides his cat, that is.) At first glance, his life was pretty dull. Probably on second glance as well.

But take a good long stare at Ianto Jones and you could see something deep in his eyes. Something that wasn't common among normal folks. It was even uncommon in un-normal folks as well. Deep in Ianto Jones' eyes, was the truth. And with truths comes knowledge, and Ianto Jones prided in himself that he knew everything.

And while you were staring you might have noticed that there is a secret door in the so called tourist office in which he worked. If you some how managed to get inside this secret door, you'd find yourself in a large secret underground base filled with tons of amazing gizmos and gadgets that couldn't have come from this world.

Welcome to Ianto Jones' life. A life where you see so many extraordinary things and save the world on a daily basis. And this most wonderful life currently found Ianto Jones in a neatly pressed suit, delivering the morning coffee. It was just like every other morning in the Torchwood hub, and Ianto was slowly starting to get bored of it. It seemed like every day the Torchwood crew sat at their respective chairs, staring at computer screens waiting for the next weevil to attack. Pointless. That's what it all was. Abso-bloody-lutely pointless.

So Ianto did what he always did. Straightened up, organized the files, made coffee, ignore sexual remarks from the oh-so-smooth Captain Jack Harkness and looked after Janice. And for once in his life, Ianto Jones actually wished that something would try and take over the world. There was only so much normalness a man could take.

"Sir?" Ianto stood in front of the handsome looking captain, a coffee mug in his hand and a folder tucked neatly under his arm. The captain smiled up at him dashingly.

"Ianto Jones!" He all but smirked, his hands moving to rest behind his head. "What may I do for you?"

"Just bringing you your coffee, sir." Ianto set the mug down carefully on the all but buried coaster before setting down the folder neatly on the center of the desk. "And making sure that you get this morning's paperwork, personally."

Jack grimaced and pushed the stack of papers away. "I was hoping you were here for more… enjoyable reasons. Reasons that would have you bent over my desk." The smile was back, this time larger and more suggestive. Ianto shook his head and replaced the papers back to where they were.

"Not during work, sir. You know that. And not until you've finished this paperwork. I don't want U.N.I.T crawling up my arse about the report on last month's accident that you've been putting off." Ianto had to stifle a laugh at the pathetic look that crossed Jack's face. Ianto had to guess that it was a strange mix between a flinch and a pout.

"It was just a scrape! No one got hurt! Well, severely hurt. Minus that car. I doubt the owner was too pleased at seeing it totaled like that." Jack waved his hand in the air as if to dismiss the topic.

"Sir, please. You're not the one that has to deal with the phone calls. They've even resorted to spamming my inbox with what can only be described as hate mail. Sir, I'm begging you." Jack's eyebrows raised at this.

"Begging me, are you?" Ianto immediately regretted his choice of words, but nodded anyways. "So, if I get this paper work done, I'll get a reward?"

"I never said that, sir."

"Well, then I never said that I'd do the paperwork." Leaning back in his chair, Jack smirked. Ianto just sighed and hung his head.

"Fine, sir. If you do the paperwork, you'll get a reward." Jack perked up at this and grabbed for the files.

"Thank you for the coffee, Ianto. Now leave me alone, I've got some paperwork to take care of." Ianto nodded his head and promptly left the office. Once a safe distance away, he burst out laughing. For having lived for so long, Captain Jack should be way smarter and a bit tougher to manipulate. Or at least have the common sense to ask what kind of reward he was getting. He did have a lollipop laying around here somewhere that he could give the good Captain, it was just a matter of remembering what drawer he put it in.

It was while rustling around through his neatly kept drawers that he noticed it. The box shaped thing sitting on the computer desk opposite of him. It was a pretty little thing, being about the size of ring box with little intricate designs engraved all over it. It glowed a soft red color that you kind of had to squint to see, but it definitely was there. Ianto didn't remember ever seeing it before. And if Ianto had never seen it before, it meant that it hadn't been filed yet. Because, of course, no one could spare the time of day to handle such an easy task as to writing down a few sentences on a sheet of paper.

As he was reaching for the said object, he failed to notice that horror stricken face of one Jack Harkness emerging from his office with a finished stack of papers in his grip. And by the time the handsome older man could yell for Ianto to stop, the Welshman's fingers already grazed the smooth outer casing of the object.

His hand felt hot. So very hot. Like it was burning or on fire. And the feeling was spreading. Spreading up his arms and across his chest until his whole body felt like it was being incinerated. Ianto Jones screamed in pain as his vision turned red. He figured he must have lost his balance as he felt like he was falling. And his fall was broken for a mere second by something blunt and hard on his head. A searing pain throbbed in his temple before he was falling again.

Ianto Jones passed out before he hit the floor.

**Here's a quick little intro! Please review and tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh wow! So I **_**just**_** got back, and man! Was I surprised when my Inbox literally flooded with reviews and alerts and favorites! And it was because of that that I decided to update tonight instead of tomorrow night after work. **

**Hopefully I don't make any of you guys cry!**

**Please read and review!**

The first thing Ianto Jones realized when he came to was that Jack Harkness was yelling.

"Two seconds! Two seconds I set it down thinking 'Oh. It'll be fine. This is Torchwood. They should know not to touch it since they don't know what it is and its glowing red.' But no! They see a potential threat and think "Oh! Looks Dangerous! I should poke at it a bit and see what it does!'" Ianto could tell by the constant foot steps that Jack was pacing.

"Jack, calm down! Breathe for two seconds and tell me what the hell is going on!" It was Gwen's voice now, and by the frantic squeakiness of it, Ianto could guess that she was wearing that worried face of hers as she watched Jack pace.

"What's going on is that Ianto touched that _thing,_" Jack spat out the word in distaste. "and he shouldn't have! He should've known better! I would've thought him out of everyone would've realized not to touch something alien!"

"Well what it is?!" Gwen shouted back, and Ianto couldn't take any more of it. He was too thirsty and confused. What was happening to him?

"Jack…?" He choked out, coughing weakly as he tried to roll over on his side. His body ached to move, and his head hurt something fierce. He guessed that had something to do with his fall. Ianto tried to open his eyes, but the lights were too bright. Now his eyes stun as well. Groaning, he opted to just lay as still as possible.

Ianto felt someone grab his hand. Jack. It was Jack's hand. He'd recognize Jack's hand no matter what. "Ianto? Ianto can you hear me?"

If he could, Ianto would've rolled his eyes. "Yes, jack. I can hear you. Just—" Ianto's body convulsed in a fit of coughs. Jack's hand squeezed his tighter. "Just… Just tell me what's going on."

There was silence in the Torchwood hub. A long painful silence that made Ianto worry. Jack never shut up. Literally never shut up and now he was completely quiet. That lead Ianto to believe he had done something completely stupid.

Jack cleared his throat weakly before starting. "That thing you touched is a bit of human technology from the future. It's a common device found in most hospitals, usually harmless. It's meant to give a child's mind an extra boost, maturing it faster than normal. Nothing too extreme, just an added couple of years. Helped the worlds out there to teach children. A child's mind has an infinite capacity to learn and store knowledge. Just think of what it could learn if it could understand all that it was learning."

"Well, what's that mean for Ianto?" Gwen interrupted as she glanced between the two men. "That Ianto will learn things quicker?"

Jack shook his head and looked gravely down at Ianto. "No. I wish that were the case. That device fell through the rift. On the journey it picked up a few different types of radioactivity, and it's slowly malfunctioning."

Ianto didn't like where this conversation was heading. "Malfunctioning? How?" He asked, his voice weak as the fear slowly started to creep up inside him. Jack's gaze grew darker.

"The calibration is off completely. It's still working, but working at a much larger scale than it should." Jack's eyes never left Ianto's as his thumb ran over the back of the younger man's hand.

Gwen gulped loudly. "what does it all mean, Jack?" For a second time there was a large silence in the Torchwood base, and Ianto suddenly felt cold.

"It means that Ianto's mind is going to mature a lot faster than it should. And since the stopping mechanism is shot, his brain wont know when to stop maturing." Jack sighed and ran his free hand through his brown locks. "So each day, Ianto's mind will mature years and years and years, and it wont stop until it's reached its maximum age."

The life expectancy of a Torchwood member was very low and very consistent. Hardly anyone that could die made it very far past their forties, and that was if they were lucky. Ianto Jones' knew this. He had read all the files, he saw all the body vaults. He even had to put his own friends in their own metal graves. Yet Ianto Jones never thought he wouldn't reach the age of thirty.

Ianto Jones was foolish.

Gwen didn't want to believe it. "Isn't there a way to reverse it? To stop it? Anything?" Her hands made wild gestures at her sides as she stared desperately at Jack.

Jack's eyes never lfet Ianto's face. "I don't know. I don't have the slightest clue as to how to reverse it. I'd need a full medical scan on him, a full scan on the device! But the only two that could help us are gone themselves!" Ianto Jones had never heard Jack Harkness' voice sound so defeated.

Gwen's eyes flashed in anger as she grabbed Jack by his coat and forced him to look at her. "Well you can't just sit there and watch our friend die!" She seethed, her fists clenching around his jacket as she shook him angrily.

"I'm not!" Jack snapped back, his face contorting in fury. "I'm going to do everything in my god damn power to make him better! Don't you even think for a second I'm not Gwen Cooper, or so help you, I will toss you out of this base and retcon you til you can't remember your own name!"

Gwen paused, her eyes wide in shock as she stared opened mouth at their captain. "Well then…" She started, blinking a few times before letting go of her grip on Jack. "Good. Brilliant." She nodded to make her point.

But even though Ianto Jones' found his captain's little outbreak to be endearing, he knew the truth. Because Ianto Jones knew everything.

"How long?" His voice came out weaker than he was hoping it would, but he couldn't help it. Shaking his head, Ianto gathered up as much courage as he could and stared directly into Captain Jack Harkness' eyes. "How long?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, feigning ignorance. This time, Ianto did roll his eyes.

"Don't play dumb with me Jack. I know just as well as you do that you might not be able to do anything. That anyone might not be able to do anything. I need to know. How long?"

Jack Harkness looked at the ground, his face showing utter pain. His mouth opened and closed three times before he managed to choke out the horrible truth.

"Two weeks. A month at most."


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the reviews! They make me extremely happy**

Ianto Jones never had time to think about children. His mother always bugged him about it, giving her grandchildren. What mother didn't bug their child to have children of their own? And nearly every phone call, Ianto Jones' mother brought up the topic of Ianto settling down and having kids. And every phone call Ianto Jones gave the exact same reply. An exasperated sigh followed by a list of reasons why it wasn't possible. No girl had caught his eye, he didn't have a proper house and he didn't have the proper income or the proper job. Hs job being more of the reason than he'd ever let his mother know, of course, but she'd still let her disappointment show through her voice as she moved the topic on to how his father was doing.

How could he have children while he still worked at Torchwood? He had heard Gwen complain about it more than once as she rambled on about troubles with Rhys and life outside Torchwood. He'd have to work long hours and leave at weird hours, be gone for days at a time…

Ianto Jones never had the time for children and now he never will.

Things like that kept popping into his mind as he sat at his desk staring blankly into the hub that was his life for so long. Things that he always wanted to do but never found the time for. Things he wasn't quite ready to do. Getting married. Growing old physically. Simple things like that, things that most people take for granted. People took things like that for granted every single moment of every single day, and it was things like that that Ianto Jones truly desired right now.

Because Ianto Jones didn't know how to die properly. He didn't even know how to die the wrong way. There was no list of things to do, no schedule. Just a deadline. A finishing line that he didn't quite know what to do when he got there but was approaching faster than he could even imagine. His stomach was churning and he felt sick and he reckoned that he was going to feel this way for the rest of his life. Too bad the rest of his life would end before his rent was due.

Two days had passed since the news of his demise, and Ianto Jones didn't feel any different. He didn't feel any wiser, more tired, older, anything. He just felt like himself, yet he knew that his brain had aged anywhere between five to ten years in the time that had passed. He actually felt less wise. He was confused and scared and he didn't know what do to. And the one man that could remotely tell him what was going on only left his office on very rare occasions. On these occasions, however, he would burst from his office, coat billowing behind him as he ran through the hub. He'd run his fingers briefly over Ianto's shoulder as he passed, maybe trying to be reassuring, but Ianto only felt cold as his hand would leave his shoulder and he'd leave. Not even a word as to where he was going. He'd just leave Ianto alone in the hub with a sympathetically staring Gwen as he died.

Ianto Jones was dying and he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. Of course, everyone died, he knew it. His mother broke that little piece of information to him at a very young age. Everything grew old and died and Ianto was fine with that. He had know that he was going to die someday. He just never thought to take into consideration that he'd die before he even had to worry about a mid-life crisis. And even though he knew it was wrong, Inato wondered why the hell it had to be him?

There are so many people in this world that throw their lives away, that don't even live their lives. People who try to kill themselves, people who abuse others. Ianto Jones loved his life, and save so many others. So why? Why did it have to be him?

For the first time since he heard the news, Ianto Jones started crying. And it was Gwen of all people that was there to rush to him and gather him in her arms. Gwen Cooper held him and rocked him in his arms while he cried, and jack Harkness was no where in sight.

What was he going to do? He was going to _die_ in less than a month and he didn't know what to do! It was the most horrible feeling that Ianto had ever felt. Because Ianto Jones knew exactly what will happen to him when he's gone. There will be an autopsy, his body will be put into a vault and put into the wall, and then his stuff will be thrown into a storage room and forgotten. His life will be erased from existence.

Ianto Jones will be forgotten.

What will he tell his mother? Who will take care of his cat? What will happen to him? Owen and Jack always spoke of the darkness. Something was lurking in the Darkness. Would it come after him? Oh god, he was afraid of the dark. What was he going to do? What was he going to do?

He cried harder as he clung to Gwen tighter. Burying his face into Gwen's shoulder, Ianto let all the tears he could out. He was so scared, so very very scared.

"Did I miss something?" Jack's voice rose over the cries, causing Ianto to jump. Looking up from Gwen, Ianto looked up at Jack. Yet Jack just stood there staring down at them with that confused look on his face. And Ianto felt anger towards Jack, his anger just kept boiling up. How dare he ask if he missed something. He was going to die and he was no where in sight! How dare he.

Ianto took one last sniff, stood up and smiled at Gwen thankfully before glaring at Jack and leaving. Before he made it out of the Torchwood doors, Ianto Jones heard Jack's annoyed voice. "Seriously, what did I miss?"

Jack Harkness was missing Ianto Jones' final living moments.


End file.
